Ellison Family Graveyard
Gorman vicinity, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first settler in this part of Eastland County, James Madison Ellison (1840-1923) built a cabin near Ellison Springs in 1858. He married Eliza Jane McGough and was a stock farmer in this area for half a century. As a young man, he was permanently disabled while serving in a militia company defending frontier homes against hostile Indian attack. Ellison established this cemetery after the death of his mother Nancy Baird Ellison (1818-1876), a native of Georgia and midwife for her pioneer neighbors. Although intended for family burials, the plot has always been available to friends and others in need. An unknown child, from a family who camped on Ellison's land as they moved west, died of pneumonia and was buried here. Ellison's son John, his younger son J.T., killed in a fight over a horse, and his daughter Lanie are among the 12 family members interred here. The cemetery contains 26 graves in all. In 1901 the land was legally deeded for use as a graveyard. In 1918 petroleum was discovered in the county, and Ellison leased his land for oil exploration. He moved to the Rio Grande Valley with a granddaughter and her family, and bought a citrus farm. He died there in 1923 and now lies buried in the family cemetery. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James Madison Ellison built the first cabin in this part of Eastland County in 1858 and was permanently disabled defending frontier homes in a militia company against Indian raids. He opened this graveyard after his mother—a Georgia-born midwife—died in 1876, and though meant for family, it always welcomed neighbors and strangers, including an unknown child from a westering family who died on his land. Twenty-six graves rest here, and after prospering in the county's 1918 oil boom and moving south, Ellison too was brought back to lie among them.
Why it matters
The little cemetery captures the whole arc of Texas frontier settlement—danger, kinship, neighborliness, and the oil that finally transformed the land.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Madison Ellison
- · Nancy Baird Ellison
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ellison Springs
Gorman vicinity, TX
These springs were used for centuries by Indigenous people before James Madison Ellison built the first cabin nearby in 1858. During the Civil War, frontiersmen formed militia companies for defense, and on August 9, 1864, a dozen scouts were attacked here and took refuge in Ellison's cabin—Captain Singleton Gilbert and "Button" Keith were killed and Ellison was disabled for life. Once the raids ceased, the springs became a gathering place for picnics, camp meetings, and a Baptist church, a social hub for the scattered settlers.
Fort Blair, C.S.A.
Desdemona, TX
A few miles southwest stood Fort Blair, the largest of the far-western "family forts" that sheltered settlers through the Civil War years when regular troops were away. Started by C.C. Blair in 1857, its dozen log cabins were linked by pickets, and its families made their own candles, soap, food, and clothing from whatever the land offered while defending against Indian raids. After the war the site became the town of Desdemona, which boomed when oil was struck in 1918.
Alameda Cemetery
Desdemona vicinity, TX
This burial ground began when pioneer William Mansker set aside part of his land for a school and community cemetery in the mid-19th century, serving Anglo settlers drawn together by the hardships of frontier Texas. Family clusters like the four Bell children who died in 1877, graves marked only by fieldstones, and the interment of veterans of several wars all testify to the precarious lives of those who built the Alameda community.
Early Settlers of Eastland County
Eastland, TX
Cattle grazed the Eastland County grasslands in the 1850s, and the U.S. Army's frontier forts drew a first trickle of families from the older Southern states. The Civil War emptied the region when the garrisons withdrew and settlers fled to fortified refuges like Blair's Fort, but pioneers returned afterward and organized the county in 1873. A contested county-seat fight moved the government from Merriman to the newly founded town of Eastland in 1875.